Cooling and condensing tower



Oct. 22, 1929. E. BURHORN COOLING AND CONDENSING TOWER Filed June 20,1927 INVENTOR.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EDWIN BURHORN, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEYCOOLING AND CONDENSIN G TOWER Application filed June 20, 1927. SerialNo. 200,113.

This invention is a novel cooling and constantially successively ratherthan simuldensing tower, having reference more espetaneously, the waterbeing cooled through the cially to a combinedvapparatus for theatmosgreater extent of the tower and thence applied pheric cooling ofwater and for effecting conto the condenser coils and thence received indensing operations. the collecting vessel for recirculation. A

A recent instance of a mere cooling tower further object is to permitadjustment of the is that shown in my prior Patent 1,610,255 waterdistribution and descent from the tower issued December 14, 1926, thisbeing an apto the condenser, which may frequently be paratus wherein thecooling effects of curuseful to vary and adjust the progress of the 1rents of atmospheric air are utilized to lower condensing action, or tooffset the tendency of the temperature of water, which is distribastrong wind to divert laterally the descenduted and passed through thetower by ing water. Other and further objects and gravity, by delayed orinterrupted descent, advantages of the invention will be pointed so asto be subjected to the requisite contact out in the hereinafterfollowing description with atmospheric air, the cooled water being of anillustrative embodiment of the invenusually drawn off from thecollecting pan or tion or will be apparent to those skilled in thevessel at the foot of the tower and passed to subject matter. its placeof use and thence back to the top of To the attainment of the abovereferred the tower for repetition of action. Instead to objects andadvantages the resent inven- 0 of collecting the descending water andthence ion consists in the novel coo ing and conpassing it to acondensing apparatus, the densing tower and the novel features ofarpresent invention involves a combination rangement, combination,operation and conwherein the condensing apparatus or coils structionherein illustrated or described. are located, and the condensingoperation is In the accompanying drawings Fig. 1 is a 25 performed,within the cooling tower itself, side elevation of a cooling andcondensing prior to the receipt of the water in the coltower embodyingthe present invention, with lecting vessel. The nearest example in thecertain parts broken away to show more prior'art that I am'aware of inwhich conclearly the features involved. densing apparatus and a coolingtower are Fig. 2 is a perspective view on an enlarged 30 combined is myprior Patent 1,287,630 of scale of a certain portion of the apparatus.December 18, 1918, which is characterized by The disclosed apparatusconstitutes an inan arrangement of condensing pipes which expensive,efiicient and compact means of imextend through the greater part of theheight proving the operation and etfioiency of conof the tower and ineffect are arranged in exdensers for various purposes, for example in 35tended formation in a plurality of tiers interconnection withrefrigerating plants of small so posed between the successive coolingdecks capacity. of the tower, so as to be exposed at each tier Thegeneral arrangement of the frame both to the descending water at thatpoint and work and water passages may be similar the natural aircurrents; and the functions of to that shown in the prior patentsreferred 40 cooling and condensing may be said to proo, th details ofsaid 1926 patent having ceed slmultaneously through the tower. beenlargely adopted herein for purposes of The general object of the presentinvention illustration. The water is conducted to the is to afford acombined cooling and condenstop of the tower and there sprinkled ordising tower which is more eflicient and reliable tributed and whilepassing downwardly is 45 in operation and more simple, inexpensivecaught and delayed at different levels by and durable in constructionand operation what are known as cooling decks, each of than priorapparatuses. A particular object which operates to hold and sometimesredisis to provide an intercombination of cooling tribute the water,passing it on downwardly tower and condenser such that the cooling tothe next deck and finally to the collecting 60' and condensingoperations take place subpan at the base, from where it is drawn for usein the condenser of a steam engine, or

the condenser in which the ammonia of a refrigerating apparatus iscondensed, or the like; but in these latterrespects the presentinvention is different since the water has performedits condensingfunction before reach ing the collecting pan which is beneath both thetower and the condenser.

The drawings indicate a base structure comprising supporting beams 10above which stand four corner uprights or' columns 11 interconnected atthe top by beams 12. At variouslevels through the upper part of thetower are a series of cross beams 13' supporting water troughs 14, theseconstituting the cooling decks of the tower, and being arrangedpreferably in an alternating arrangement from deck to deck, withoverflow notches for the discharge from each trough to the troughs ofthe deck below. The sides of the tower may be enclosed by a system ofinclined louvers 15 permitting natural air drafts to flow through thetower while preventing loss of water by splashing.

It will be noticed that the cooling tower is tall enough to accommodatethe cooling decks in the upper part of the tower, leaving a substantialspace below the series of decks or between them and the base. Thecondenser, of any form, herein represented by a system of pipes 17 isaccommodated in the lower part of the tower. The pipe 18 may beconsidered the outlet from the refrigerating or other apparatus to thecondenser 17, and the pipe 19 the outlet from the condenser or thereturn pipe to the refrigerating system. The nature and the arrangementof the condenser elements, passages'or ipes 17 may be varied, but hereinthey are s own arranged in sections, each section consisting of asubstantially vertical series of interconnected pipes so that waterapplied to the topmost pipes of each series may drop therefrom to thepipes below and thus downward throughout the pipes in each section,subject all the while to continued cooling effect, through evaporationand air currents, while extracting heat from the condenser coils and thehot fluid flowing therein.

Between the system of cooling decks and the system of condensing pipesis shown a system of parts for properly distributing,

conducting or applying the descending water to the several sections ofthe condenser. Thus near each side of'the tower, running parallel to thecondenser pipes, is shown a water plate 20, this being inclined inwardlyanddownwardly so that water received from above will be delivered overthe inclined plate to one of the outer sections of condenser pipes.Between the side plates 20 are shown other water plates 21 suitablyfixed in place and also inclined for similar purposes of distributionand discharge to the sections of the condenser. The water plates 21 areshown as supported by cross beams 22 throu h rods or axles 23 mounted onthe beams an carrying the plates. Each pair of adjacent water plates isseen to converge downwardly to gather in and deliver the descendingwater to the respective sections of the condenser.

WVhile this distributing means might deliver directly to the topmostcondenser pipes there is preferably employed a system of receivingtroughs 25 which may be V-shape in cross section and with bottomopenings directly above the topmost condenser pipes. These troughs are,therefore in the nature of funnels, receiving the delivered water andfeeding it out uniformly to the respective condenser sections. Thearrangement and action is well illustrated in Fig. 2 whichalso shows themanner in which the water plates distribute the descendng water to thefunnel troughs. p

The descending water therefore, after traversing the system of coolingdecks, is cooled and properly distributed by the water plates 20 and 21and thence received and discharged by the water troughs 25 directly tothe pipes of the condenser 17. The water running,

dropping or trickling down the surface of the condenser pipes iseventually received in a collecting pan 28 arranged inside the tower atthe base, this pan therefore serving the the cooling decks of the towerand from the condenser system.

The recirculation may be in any desired or well kn own manner, forexample the hot water in the pan may be drawn off by an outlet pipe 29connecting with a pump 30 which forces the hot water upwardly throughpipes 31 to a sprinkler or other form of distrbutor 32 at the top of thetower; a separate water supply connecton 33 being shown as a'convenientmeans of replenishing the water lost by evaporation and otherwise.

It may sometimes be desirable to apply a greater cooling effect to onesection of the condenser than to others and for this purpose a waterregulating means is'shown as will now be described. Also in case a heavywind is blowing this may give a drift to the descending water and tendto concentrate too much thereof at one condenser section and too littleat another, and the regulating means hereof permits correction of this.

For these purposes adjusting plates or what may be called water dampers35 are shown, these being upstanding plates run-- 95 purposes ofreceiving the water both from with respectto the water plates and mayhave the dampers 35 attached to them so that by turning the axles thedampers will be adjusted. For example, the adjustment may be in eitherdirection as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 1. For the purpose ofadjustment each of the axles 23 may have a downwardly extending arm 36to the lower end of which is pivoted an adjusting rod 37 extendinglaterally to where it is provided with a notched head and handle 38fitting into a convenient recess or shoulder on one of the columns ofthe tower This mechanical device permits each of the water dampers to beset at various angles so to throw more or less water into each condensersection as described.

It will thus be seen that there has been de scribed a cooling andcondensing tower of the atmospheric type embodying the principles andattaining the advantages of the present invention. Since many matters ofarrangement, combination, operation and construction may be variouslymodified without departing from the principles of the in vention, it isnot intended to limit the same to such matters except to the extent setgforth in the appended claims.

WVhat is claimed is:

1. A combined atmospheric condensing and cooling tower comprising themeans for distributing the water descending through the tower whileexposed to natural .air currents, and the collecting vessel therebelow,in combination with a system of condenser pipes in superposed serieslocatedbetween the distributing means and the collecting vessel, anddeflecting means between the distributing means and the condenser ipesarranged to direct the descending distri uted'water to the condenserpipes. I

2. A combined atmospheric condensing and cooling tower comprising themeans for distributing the water descending through the tower whileexposed to natural air currents, and the collecting vessel therebelow,in combination with a system of condenser pipes in vertical serieslocated between the distributing means and the collecting yessel, andalso exposed to natural air currents, and deflecting plates between thedistributing means and the condenser pipes arranged directly above thelatter to direct the descending distributed water to the topmostcondenser pipes.

3. The combination as in claim 2 wherein condenser pipes located belowthe distributing means and the collecting vessel, and deflecting platesbetween the distributing means and condenser pipes arranged to divideand direct the descending water to the several series of condenserpipes.

5. The combination as in claim 4 wherein the deflecting plates areinclined, and a system of troughs receiving the water from said platesand delivering direct to the topmost of the condenser pipes.

signature hereto.

. EDWIN BURHORN.

are one or more adjustable regulating plates adapted to throw more orless of the descending water to different portions of the condenser;

4. In a combined atmospheric condensing and cooling tower having meansfor distributing the waterv to descend through the tower while exposedto natural air currents, and a collecting vessel therebelow, in combination with a plurality of vertical series of

